Thursday, September 5, 2013

And the first one is off to school.

Dani started Pre-K this week. Pre-K! While it would sound sweet and nostalgic to *sniff, ask where my little baby went, but, I was pretty excited for her. While I'm a big proponent for kids home with parents, I realize they miss out on the camaraderie of peers. She's going to meet kids that she can't boss around and make friends and have a blast! So, yesterday was the first day of half-day pre-k through the school district. Wes brought her to school and picked her up. The school has a dress code, which I'm a fan of, and hope that the petty materialistic bullshit that comes with peers can be avoided, in part, for awhile because of it.

Of course, when we were shopping for bookbags, Dani had to have the Mario and Luigi design. No cute Hello Kitty or anything...

She literally got a happy meal toy yes, bad mommy buys happy meals with a Luigi in it, and has been a fan ever since. I should mention we do not own any Nintendo game system that exposed her to Mario and Luigi before the toy. Since then, we've been intermittently watching the Super Mario Super Show on Netflix....for those of you too young to know what that is, it's a show from 1989, which is a mix of cartoons and skits with actual people (Captain Lou Albano from the WWF plays Mario). Worst show ever.

Soooo, back to Dani and school and such. They let the parents in on the first day to check out the classroom. Dani's been very close-lipped about the day-to day at school, only telling me that they are learning manners and what to do.

Today was the second day, and we decided she'd take the bus. To be honest, we ranked the elementary schools so that we'd get a school that she could take a bus to. Our city is small and we can drive to any school in less than 10 minutes, but I didn't want us to have to drive her because we were too close to the school (packing up 3 kids to deliver one would suck!). So Dani got on the bus today! She (and the girl next door) were the first kids on the bus.

On the way home....Wes waited at the stop--and the girl next door got off, but not Dani!

I had filled out a form months ago that asked if we needed child care transportation, and I had put our sitter's address and said Tues and Thurs were the days. BUT when we got the bus pass, it was for our home only. Wes called the bus garage and they said the school had to set up the alternate transportation but that they were swamped and he should wait a day or two to call.

When he asked the driver where Dani was, he mentioned that she was on the way to the sitter. Wes calls Miss Ruth to give her a heads up and see if Dani was there yet, and Dani arrived at Miss Ruth's house. She was crying at that point, as she had to switch buses and she kept telling the driver that he was not going the right way to our address. But all ended well, with Tori and Tommy being super-excited to see Dani get off a school bus!

It's been a wild ride, these few days. Dani really seems happy to be going to school, like it something that is hers, alone. I've got to literally interrogate her to find out what she did all day, not because she didn't love it, but because I think she liked it so much she can't really describe it.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I think Tommy and Tori are happy for the 33% additional attention...one less kid they have to share mommy and daddy and Miss Ruth with!